


tell the world (i'm coming home)

by kyukyuu



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Fluff and Angst, Insecure Keith (Voltron), Japanese Keith (Voltron), Keith has abandonment and self-esteem issues and has a hard time saying 'I love you', M/M, and family loves unconditionally, but love is patient and kind, welcome to the family keith!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 08:20:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17076731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyukyuu/pseuds/kyukyuu
Summary: “So you’re really okay with all of this?” Lance asks meekly once more.“Yeah,” Keith lies. “Of course.”Keith meets Lance's family for the first time.





	tell the world (i'm coming home)

**Author's Note:**

> [NOTE]: Some translations were purposely left out until the very end.

Keith can’t stop bouncing his leg.

In fact, it’s bouncing so damn hard that he’s surprised Lance hasn’t woken up yet. Instead, he just shifts in his sleep, pressing his face further into Keith’s neck.

Keith wishes he could’ve passed out like that, but instead, he’s stuck on this goddamn flight, about to meet his boyfriend’s family for the first time and he’s not sure how to stop feeling like he wants to throw himself through the nearest window or choke himself to death with the inflatable emergency life jacket under his chair.

Keith isn’t usually someone that most people want to bring home to their parents and he  _knows_ that. He’s socially awkward, parentless, total crap with children, doesn’t like talking about himself and not that great looking to boot but somehow,  _somehow_ , had managed to score someone like Lance. What if his luck had run out? What if he finally meets Lance’s parents and he can’t impress? What if Lance’s parents thinks their son can do better? What if  _Lance_ realizes he can do better?

Keith bounces his leg harder.

“Are you okay?” Lance murmurs sleepily into his neck.

“Yeah,” Keith whispers, trying not to sound like he’s about to pop a blood vessel from stress. “I just–” He fumbles with his seat belt, almost throwing it down as soon as he gets it off. “I just need to use the bathroom, I’ll be–”

He’s already out of his seat halfway down the aisle before he’s even finished his sentence.

The bathroom door slams shut loudly behind him and he locks it hastily. The bathroom is  _so_ tiny that Keith literally only has enough room to stand. It also smells like the person who used it last dropped a massive bomb in here but it’s enough of a change in environment for Keith to pretend like he’s not on an 8-hour flight from Colorado to Cuba and inevitably about to  _lose_  his fucking boyfriend.

Keith presses the heels of his palms against his eyes and tries not to breathe too deeply because it  _really_ smells like shit in here.

He can only take the smell for another two minutes before he’s fighting to get the hell out.

As soon as he opens the door, there’s a hand on his chest pushing him back into the bathroom.

“What the f–” Keith curses as he stumbles backwards. Before he can fall onto the toilet, there’s a hand steadying him at the same time the door falls shut again. It’s dark for a second before the gross yellow florescent lights blink back on.

“Jesus  _Christ,_  Keith _.”_ Lance says as he wrinkles his nose. “What did you  _do_ in here?”

“It wasn’t me!” Keith hisses through the sleeve of his sweater pressed against his nose. “Whoever was in here last had diarrhea in here or something.”

“I bet it was the eggs they served!” Lance accuses, making a face. “This is why I never get the eggs, they don’t smell right.”

Keith snorts, feeling the toilet paper dispenser dig into his lower back. Lance is pressed almost completely against him and if it wasn’t for the  _acrid_ smell and Keith’s fight or flight instincts about to activate from his intense, raging desire to get away from both this bathroom and their final destination  _in general_ , Keith might’ve joined the mile high club.

“What are we doing in here?” Keith asks in a muffled voice.

“Came here to check on you,” Lance says, also through the sleeve of his sweater. Despite that, the concern in his voice is evident.

“I was only in here for five minutes.”

“Yeah, but…” Lance starts before trailing off. His eyes start to wander, looking anywhere but at Keith. “It’s just… You look like you… don’t really want to…”

Keith knows exactly where this is going, but he spits it out before he can stop himself. “To what?”

“To meet my family.” Lance finishes.

Keith winces and then neutralizes his expression just as fast, but by the brief look on Lance’s face, Keith knows he saw. Lance looks down at his feet.

“Lance,” Keith sighs. “Lance, look at me.”

When he doesn’t, Keith has to gather enough courage to remove his hands from his nose to press them against Lance’s cheeks and physically  _lift_  his head to face him. When Keith meets ocean blue eyes, his heart stutters a little bit. “Lance. I  _really_ like you, okay? I wouldn’t have agreed to fly to Cuba with you to meet your family if I wasn’t… if I wasn’t  _serious_  about you. You know that right? I’m telling you how I feel in a tiny bathroom on an airplane 40,000 feet above ground that smells like a diaper right now.” At that, Lance finally cracks a smile. “I wouldn’t do that for just  _anyone_.”

At that, Lance flushes a gorgeous pink. “Aw,” He says cheekily.

Keith rolls his eyes at his response. “Really?  _Aw?_ That’s all I get?”

“I would say more but if I open my mouth one more time I won’t be able to get the smell of shit out of my nose for the next two weeks.”

Keith snorts really hard, and then regrets it quickly.

When they finally leave the bathroom together, they get stares from the other passengers but Keith finds it easy to ignore them all when Lance has him by the hand, leading them back to their seats. When they get back, Lance pushes Keith into the window seat aggressively, knocking the wind out of him when his back hits the corner space where the chair meets the wall. Lance hunkers down beside him, pushing the armrest between them out of the way so he can lie bonelessly on top of Keith.

Keith sighs contently, wrapping an arm around Lance to pull him closer. It might not be the same in a week on their flight back to Colorado, after all. It’s silent for a moment and with the soft humming of the airplane, Keith finds his heart calming.

“So you’re really okay with all of this?” Lance asks meekly once more.

“Yeah,” Keith lies. “Of course.”

 

✈ 

 

Cuba is hotter than Keith was prepared for.

Five minutes before they even touch down at Juan Gualberto Gómez International Airport, Keith is already sweating through his knit sweatshirt which he really,  _really_ regrets wearing now. But at least its black and doesn’t show his sweat stains.  _Small mercies_ , Keith chants in his head.

Lance, on the other hand, flings his sweater off before they even get off the plane, revealing a sleeveless shirt underneath. When they’re inside the airport and waiting for their luggage at the carousel, Lance bounces off to the bathroom (which is  _much_  cleaner and smells like  _lemons (thank you lord)_ ) and trades his jeans for shorts.

Keith, unfortunately, wasn’t smart enough to plan that far in advance so he’s stuck in his sweater and jeans until he can wrench his luggage open somewhere. But despite suffocating in the heat and humidity, Keith doesn’t want the customs process to go any  _faster_.

As soon as he’d stepped off the plane, the feeling of existential dread had returned, and after that, it felt like he was just going through the rest of the airport process in a thick haze. Like he was watching himself through someone else’s eyes.

Right before they exit customs, Lance squeezes his hand and for a moment, Keith relishes in it, feeling like it might be one of the last times he’ll get to hold Lance’s hand. “You ready?”

Keith forces himself to nod and holds Lance’s hand just a little bit tighter.

 

✈

 

As soon as they exit into arrivals, screams erupt and Keith barely has enough time to brace himself before there’s a fucking small army of people  _stampeding_  over.

Keith would have bolted to avoid being run over if Lance hadn’t yelled “Mamá!”

Keith is  _completely_  unprepared for the sheer amount of damn people in Lance’s family. Before Keith can even turn around, there’s a woman scooping Lance up into her arms, happiness just  _radiating_ off her beaming, teary-eyed face. “Lance, mi hijo (my son)! Dios mío, te extrañé mucho (I missed you so much)!” She cries in a foreign tongue. There are at least ten other people who come running after her, each fighting to get a chance to hug Lance.

Keith gets nudged further and further away from Lance, eventually standing awkwardly at the edge of the crowd.

Even though Lance is literally  _right there_ , Keith feels a thousand light years away. Lance is reuniting with his family after God knows how long, Keith  _gets_ it. So when he starts panicking and feeling the desperate need to have Lance’s hand in his own rising inside of him, he stamps it down with a heavy heart.

Keith can’t rely on Lance to ground him forever. He’ll need to do this on his own.

So he watches from the sidelines as each of Lance’s family members take turns fussing over him. And like this, Lance looks happier than Keith has seen him in a long, long time.

Keith has spent at  _least_  ten nights listening to Lance talk about his family, so he concentrates instead on picking each of them out of the crowd. He’s able to identify Lance’s mother, father, grandmother, grandfather, niece and nephew in the crowd. He has a harder time with Lance’s brothers and sisters. He knows their names but can’t quite yet put names to faces.

Keith is jostled out of his thoughts when Lance calls his name. He looks up in time to see  _all_ of Lance’s family staring at him.

“Keith!” Lance calls out again breathlessly, face beaming as he pushes through the crowd to stand next to him. “Keith, this is my family!” Then, he turns to his family. “ Mamá, papá, abuela, abuelo, this is Keith… el amor de mi vida.” He says shyly.

Keith has  _no idea_  what Lance just introduced him as, but when Lance’s parents smile fondly at him and his grandparents look over at him with a soft look in their eyes, Keith finally lets go of the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

“It– It’s finally nice to–  _ooph!”_ Keith starts before he’s literally  _physically_ picked up by Lance’s grandmother. “Holy shit,” He swears in a muffled voice before he can stop himself.

“Cariño!” Lance’s grandmother exclaims as she’s suffocating Keith to death. “Gracias, gracias por hacer que mi nieto sea tan feliz.”

From behind him, Lance’s smiling grandfather simply pats Keith on the shoulder.

Keith can slowly feel himself turning purple.

“Abuela! Él no habla español (he doesn’t speak Spanish)!” Lance exclaims.

Keith can’t speak Spanish for shitbut  _that_ he can understand. Lance’s grandmother drops him. Keith tries to pretend he isn’t wheezing even though he is. Lance is laughing with tears in his eyes now, and it might be from lack of oxygen but Keith thinks Lance has never looked prettier than he does now.

“¡Vamos! (come, now)!“ Lance’s mother exclaims as she takes Keith gently by the hand. Keith tenses and stares at it. The rest of the family buzzes excitedly as they all take hold of their luggage and follow behind.

For a moment, it feels  _weird_. Scary. To have another hand in his own that isn’t Lance’s. Keith doesn’t know what to think. How to feel. Keith’s never had someone to call mom, so to have a stranger willingly reach over to take his hand and guide him was like having the ground underneath his feet thrown off balance. He’s so used to figuring things out on his own and flying solo that he almost wants to wrench his hand away.

But this is Lance’s  _mother_. Keith is probably the last person on Earth to know anything about  _moms_ but at the very least, he knows she’s important to Lance. And Lance is important to him. So he doesn’t.

Then, as if she can read Keith’s mind, Lance’s grandmother comes up on his other side and takes his other hand. She’s Lance’s grandmother but to him, no different than any other stranger on the street as he probably was to her. Yet, when she looks into Keith’s eyes like he’d found a way to hang the moon for her grandson, it suddenly feels like Keith has known her for a lifetime.

“Bienvenido a casa,” She says, patting the top of his hand with her other one.

Keith doesn’t understand, so he just smiles.

 

✈ 

 

The car ride back to Lance’s family’s house is both breathtakingly beautiful and terrifying at the same time.

 _Breathtakingly beautiful_ , because driving through Varadero and being able to look out of the car window at sparkling blue water for as far as his eyes can see is something out of a dream.

 _Terrifying_ , because he’s stuck in the car with Lance and his parents and  _Lance is fucking asleep_.

At this point, Lance’s face is pressed into his neck exactly like how it had been on the airplane except this time, it’s  _in front of Lance’s freaking parents_ and Keith’s not sure if he’s made a good enough impression yet for Lance’s parents to love or hate that he’s got their youngest child practically melded into his sidelike white on rice.

Varadero is bordering 30 degrees Celsius but Keith is frozen solid. Lance lets out a snore.

Keith manages to stutter his way through a decent conversation with Lance’s mom for about ten minutes with his father chiming in every once in a while. She’s a lot like her son, chatting away endlessly about Varadero and the family and allowing Keith to get away with just “mm” and “mhm”s until she turns around in the passenger seat to face him.

“So Christmas break!” Lance’s mother exclaims sweetly. “We’re so happy that you flew over here with Lance to spend your break with us, but won’t your family miss you for the holidays?”

Keith inhales sharply. Dread piles up quickly in the pit of his stomach. This was what he was afraid of. This is it. Now they’ll know.  _They’ll know_.

“A-Actually…” Keith stutters, hoping the wind rushing over their heads is enough to drown out his words. “I… don’t really have…”

Lance’s mother looks at him curiously. Keith braces himself.

“…a family.” He finishes lamely.

When he opens his eyes again, there’s a look of complete horror on her face.

Keith shrinks into his seat.

The rest of the ride is quiet.

 

✈ 

 

“So this is it!  _Residencia de Lance (Residence of Lance)!_ ” Lance exclaims as he drags Keith behind him into his childhood room. It’s full of plastic glow-in-the-dark stickers and posters of a singer Keith doesn’t recognize. “Damn,” Lance laughs as he picks at the corner of his Spiderman bedsheets. “They  _really_ didn’t touch anything in here.”

Keith feels like his heart is so heavy it might drop out of his chest but he smiles anyways, dragging their luggage in behind him. “It’s nice.”

“You don’t have to lie, babe,” Lance snickers as he flops backwards onto the bed. “It’s not exactly a five-star hotel but it’s a five-minute walk to Varadero Beach and we serve bomb-ass garlic knots and arroz con pollo every night, so there’s that.”

“Yeah?” Keith smiles. He gets into the bed next to Lance and curls up into his boyfriend’s side. He’s suddenly exhausted.

“What’s wrong?” Lance asks, suddenly looking worried as he cards his fingers through Keith’s hair.

“Nothing,” Keith murmurs, eyes drooping. “Just tired.”

Lance hums and tugs the blankets over the both of them. After a while, Keith is lulled to sleep, but before he falls unconscious, he hears Lance whisper “Te amo”.

_I love you._

Keith freezes.

Lance continues to stroke his hair.

Keith pretends that he’s still asleep.

 

✈

 

When he wakes up, he’s alone in Lance’s bed.

It’s dark outside but from his bedroom window that overlooks the beach behind the house, he can see a bonfire and Lance’s entire family gathered around it, laughing and grilling meat as they chatter away into the night.

Keith props his elbow on the windowsill and just watches.

He can pick out Lance easily in the small crowd, his tall, gangly body dancing and laughing with his nephew who is less than half his height.

One of Lance’s brothers is snapping pictures of them on the side, most likely the father of Lance’s niece and nephew.

Lance’s sisters are next to each other on the logs a bit further away, bickering with each other over something that Keith can’t hear while Lance’s other brother looks like he’s egging them on. Lance’s father is scolding them.

Keith can hear the laughter and the chatter even through the closed window.

It must be nice to have such a big family, Keith thinks. But even now, spending Christmas break with Lance and his family, he knows he doesn’t have a place in it. Keith had grown up  _alone_. If he and Lance progress in their relationship, there will be no mother or father or grandmother or grandfather for Keith to introduce him to. He has nothing to give to Lance but himself and nothing to show him but the stone that marks his father’s grave and there is  _no way_  that will ever be fair to Lance. No way that can ever be enough.

 _I’m in love with Lance_ , Keith allows himself to admit desperately.  _But I’m not enough._

Lance’s family would realize that soon.

“Uncle Keith?”

Keith jumps at the sound of his name. When he turns around, Lance’s niece is standing at the doorway, clutching a ratty teddy bear with one eye and looking at him as if she’s expecting something from him.

“Uh,” Keith responds intelligently. He tries to wrack his brain for her name but fails. Miserably. “Yes?”

At the confirmation of his own name, she brightens up and pushes the door open more before wandering into the room. Keith backs up on the bed like she’s a monster, which, considering Keith’s inability to not make children cry when he simply looks at them, she may as well be.

“I got tired so papá told me I could take a nap in Uncle Marco’s room!” She says even though Keith has no idea what’s going on right now and literally did not ask. “But Uncle Marco has weird pictures of girls on his walls and it’s scary by myself.” She wrinkles her nose as she climbs onto the bed next to a confused Keith. “Can I stay here?”

“I…” Keith stutters, looking around for help even though he knows full well that Lance is having the time of his life outside. “I guess?”

Lance’s niece smiles and snuggles up next to him. To say Keith is uncomfortable would be an understatement.

She shoves her teddy bear into his face.

“This is  _Enrique Iglesias_.” She tells him proudly, saying its name in a way that Keith would never be able to imitate.

Keith furrows his eyebrows, looking back and forth between her and her bear. “En _reek_   _what?”_

Her face morphs into one of utter horror. “Uncle Keith!” She gasps. “Do you have a phone?”

Keith, despite still drowning on confusion, hands her his cellphone.

For a moment, he forgets that his lockscreen background is of him and Lance cuddling and at the realization he freaks out momentarily but before he can try and maul Lance’s niece for his phone back, she grins at it and turns to show Keith his own phone.

“I haven’t seen Uncle Lance that happy in a  _looooooooooooong_ time!” She says offhandedly before she’s taking the phone back and doing god-knows-what with it.

Keith looks at her in confusion. She’s only four (albeit way more talkative than most four year olds Keith knows), and as far as Keith knows, Lance has always been a happy-go-lucky person. “What do you mean?”

“Papá said there was a time when Uncle Lance was always sad. Because  _apparently–”_ This is the first 4-year old that Keith knows that knows the word apparently. “People say boys can’t like other boys.” She says, wrinkling her nose. “But that’s not true! Because you and Uncle Lance like each other, right?”

“Yeah,” Keith softens. “Yeah, I… I  _really_ like your Uncle Lance.”

“Good!” She beams before pulling a video of “Bailando” by Enrique Iglesias on his phone, and that’s that.

Keith spends the rest of the night with Lance’s niece watching video after video of Enrique Iglesias. Somewhere between “Duele el Corazon” and “Takin’ Back My Love”, she falls asleep.

When Lance returns to the room with a giant plate of rice and grilled meat, he finds his niece totally slumped against Keith who is sitting up ramrod straight and barely breathing, afraid that if he so much as  _inhales_  a little too much, she’ll wake.

Lance snorts loudly when he enters the room.

“Shhh!” Keith hisses.

“Relax,” Lance snickers. “Sofía’s such a heavy sleeper, she could probably sleep through an Earthquake.”

Lance hands him the plate before lifting Sofía up into his arms. And as Lance had said, she stays fast asleep. “I’ll bring her to Marco’s room. You, stick insect, eat.” He says pointedly before he and Sofía disappear out of the room.

Keith scoffs after him. “Says  _you,_ bony ass!”

By the time they’re both ready for bed, Lance is already half asleep, almost incoherent as he makes grabby hands at Keith. Keith rolls his eyes fondly and finishes shoving his toiletries back into his bag before he rolls under the covers next to Lance.

Lance immediately moves to press his face into Keith’s neck.

“Night Keith,” He mumbles. “Este osito de peluche se va para su estuche (this teddy bear leaves for its case).”

Keith just smiles and pulls him closer. “Not sure what you just said but back at you. いい夢をみてね (sweet dreams).”

Immediately, Lance shoots up with wide eyes. “Holy shit.” He breathes. “Say that again.”

Keith raises an eyebrow. “You don’t even know what I said.”

“I don’t care,” Lance demands. “Say it again. It was sexy.”

“Go to bed Lance,” Keith laughs and pushes him forcefully back down onto the bed, but when Lance continues to look up at with big googly eyes, Keith can’t help but give in. “バカ (”baka”/idiot).”

“Hey!” Lance whines. “I’ve seen enough anime in my life to know what that means. Take it back!” He digs his fingers into Keith’s side who immediately starts to shriek.

“Okay, okay! Stop!” Keith yells while laughing. “I’m sorry!”

“You better be,” Lance sniffles indignantly, somewhat satisfied with Keith’s apology.

When they finally settle down, Keith rolls his eyes. “I don’t know how any situation in this room can be sexy anyway. We’re literally sleeping on Spiderman bedsheets right now and I’m pretty sure my ass is on his face.”

Lance snorts. “I wish your ass was on  _my_ face.”

Lance gets promptly pushed off the bed.

 

✈ 

 

At what feels like the ass crack of dawn the next day, Lance drags Keith to Varadero Beach.

Keith’s eyelids are still glued shut together and his leg is still asleep from being squashed under Lance’s body weight last night but Lance’s enthusiasm for this particular early morning excursion is enough for  _both_  of them.

“You can’t come to Cuba and not see Varadero Beach, Keith!” Lance says. Keith can’t see him because his  _goddamn eyes aren’t even open yet_ , but he can  _hear_ the excitement in Lance’s voice.

“I didn’t say I didn’t want to see it,” Keith hisses back, trying to coax his eyes open. “But do we have to come see it at fucking  _seven_  in the morning?”

“Anytime after ten is when the tourists come flocking in so the answer, my dear sweet Keith, is  _yes_.”

Keith groans.

Still, despite it being ass o’clock in the morning, Keith can admit it feels nice. The beach is still relatively empty and the sun isn’t at its highest yet. Even the street vendors way down on the other side of the beach are just beginning to set up shop.

“This is where I grew up!” Lance tells him, sighing happily as he flops backwards onto the sand. “Just Rachel and I, sometimes Marco, picking fights on the sand, trying to drown each other in the water.” He laughs.

Keith snorts. “I can imagine that.”

“There also used to be this street vendor guy named Santiago who used to sell the  _best_ pineapple juice out here. But Rachel told me he disappeared years ago. Moved on to better things, I guess.” Lance turns to face him. “What about you? I know you…” Lance pauses. “…didn’t have the best childhood, but there has to be something you can look back on, right? Favourite spot to hang out? Favourite stuffed animal?”

For Lance’s sake, Keith pretends to think for a moment.

But really, there’s not much.

“My dad, I guess.” Keith finally says, even though there’s not much of him that he can remember anymore. “My dad spoke to me in Japanese first before I learned English which is probably why I can still speak it so well.”

Lance just looks at him softly for a little bit. “Do you miss him?”

Keith shrugs, gaze focused on the blue ocean. “I don’t remember him enough to miss him.”

“Well!” Lance exclaims, turning onto his back to face the sky and placing his hands underneath his head. “I would gladly share my enormous family. With you.”

Keith winces. He’s not sure if there’s any place in Lance’s family for him.

“Yeah,” He says anyway. “Thanks, Lance.”

 

✈ 

 

At night, Lance’s family has another barbecue bonfire by the beach.

While Lance is playing with his aunt’s dogs and trying to teach them how to fetch, Keith nibbles on a garlic knot on one of the logs.

“Come más, Luis!”

“Ya estoy gordo, mamá!“

“Veronica! Tienes novia?”

“Callate por favor.”

Laughter from Lance’s uncles.

Screams from Lance’s cousins.

Keith can’t understand anything.

 

✈ 

 

The next morning, Keith gets dragged to breakfast.

Not by Lance, but by his  _twin sister, Rachel._

 _“Wait,”_ Keith begs, panic welling up in him at the thought of spending the morning with Lance’s family  _without Lance_. The car ride from the airport had already been bad enough. “What about Lance?”

“Forget him,” Rachel laughs as she pulls him down the stairs. “You two woke up early yesterday so that lazy ass will probably sleep until noon today if no one wakes him. It’s only nineright now so you get the spend the morning with  _us!”_

The moment she says “us” is the moment Rachel pushes Keith through the backyard door. Outside is a giant wooden table with a  _feast_ on it and surrounding the table is every member of Lance’s family that Keith was hiding from last night.

Variations of “Keith” are immediately yelled from all ends of the table in greeting. At the warm welcome, Keith blinks, stunned and surprised.

“Keith!” Lance’s mother exclaims, immediately rushing over with a plate in her hands. It’s already piled high with food. She shoves it into his hands. “Comer (eat)! Com más (eat more)!” She looks him up and down and then makes a disapproving sound. “¡Estás tan delgado (you’re so skinny)!”

Keith is confused but takes the food anyway. He’s ushered by Rachel to the table who plops down next to him with a plate of fruit and what Keith can only describe as a mischievous grin.

“So,” Rachel starts before she stabs a piece of watermelon with more force than necessary. “You and Lancey Lance, huh? It’s the first time he’s brought someone home.”

Keith swallows.  _Jesus Christ_ , is this an interrogation? Shiro had warned him about these.

“Yeah?” Keith clears his throat. He sticks a piece of bread in his mouth to avoid talking for a few seconds longer. He swallows it too soon. “Is– Is that a good thing?”

“I dunno,” She replies nonchalantly. “Depends.”

“On what?”

“On what your  _intentions_ are with our baby brother,” Another voice interrupts. Keith jumps in surprise. When he turns around, one of Lance’s older brothers is grinning at him. Shit, what was his name again?

“Luis!” Rachel complains.  _Oh thank jesus fuck,_ Keith prays. “I thought Veronica and I told you to stay away.”

Luis rolls his eyes and tears a large piece of meat from the chicken leg he’s holding. “Hey, just because you’re Lance’s  _twin_ doesn’t make  _me_  any less special than you, okay.”

Rachel rolls her eyes but focuses her attention back at Keith. “Do you plan on marrying Lance?”

Keith chokes. “ _What?!”_

Luis  _howls_ with laughter and then slaps a heavy hand on Keith’s back. “Relax! We know you two are still young. Hell,  _I’m_ not even married yet and neither is Veronica so Lance can take a number and get in line.” He snickers.

“We just want to know if you plan on breaking Lance’s heart, cause if you do, I won’t stand for it.” Rachel threatens with her plastic fork. “Do you think you’re good enough for him?”

Keith blanks. “I–”

“Do you think you can provide for him?”

“You think you can make him happy?” Luis interjects.

Keith’s head is spinning.

“Do you think you’ll be able to make Lance happier in Colorado than he’ll be here?”

“W–” is all Keith can get out before he’s interrupted.

“You promise not to look at anyone else?”

“Have you told him you love him yet?” Rachel presses.

“I– no, not yet, I–” Keith stutters.

“You  _do_ love him, right?” Luis says, eyeing him.

_I do, I **do!** I love him!_

“So why haven’t you told him yet?” Rachel demands.

_Don’t know! I don’t know._

Keith can’t breathe. In a moment of panic, he shoves his chair back, almost knocking over his glass of orange juice. Lance’s grandmother and mother stare at him with wide eyes from across the table.

“Keith?” A familiar voice calls out.

Keith whips his head around and Lance is standing there in the doorway, staring at him in hurt and confusion.

“I–” Keith breathes, eyes wild. “I have to go.”

And then he flees, flees past a confused Lance who calls his name, flees past the front door of the house, and flees down the street until he can no longer recognize his surroundings. When he can’t run any longer, he collapses on the curb of the road, breathing hard. He curls up in the middle of nowhere, head pressed into his hands.

Keith shakes his head but the only image he can see in his head is the hurt look on Lance’s face.

Keith  _does_ love Lance. He  _loves him._ So then why couldn’t he say it?

But deep down, he  _knows_  why. Knows exactly why.

In Keith’s head, there are flashes of Lance’s family. His mother’s disapproving silence on the drive from the airport. His inability to speak Lance’s mother tongue. The fact that he didn’t belong. And now all those questions from Luis and Rachel… they’d brought forth Keith’s biggest fear.  _Can_ he make Lance happy? Was he enough? If Keith admitted to loving Lance, it almost felt like an excuse, a declaration that Keith believed his love alone was enough to make Lance happy. But what if it wasn’t? What if there was someone out there who could make Lance happier than he ever could?

Keith wasn’t able to say it because he was  _scared_.  _Is_ scared.

Scared of having Lance ripped away from him like his father had been. Like his mother. Like all the foster homes that had abandoned him because he’d never been enough.

Keith stays in that spot on the curb for a long time. When his ass starts to hurt, he gets up reluctantly to wander around the surrounding area, following the sound of the waves and eventually, hitting the beach.

He takes off his shoes.

The sand is warm between his toes.

Judging by the slight orange in the sky, it’s late afternoon.

Keith sighs, falls backwards onto the sand, and closes his eyes.

When he opens them, the face of Lance’s grandmother is staring down at him from above.

Keith almost screams as he shoots up.

“Grandma!” He exclaims, feeling flustered as he tries to smooth down his hair. “Or, I mean,  _Lance’s_ grandma.” He tries to recall the word grandma in Spanish. “ _Abuela?”_

At the familiar word, she grins and sits down next to him.

Keith doesn’t know what to do with himself.

Had she walked all the way here by herself?

“Cariño,” Lance’s grandmother says as she reaches a hand up to place gently on Keith’s cheek.

“I-I’m really sorry, Abuela,” Keith flushes. “I can’t really understand what you’re saying…”

She looks unbothered by his foreign tongue. “Cariño,” She repeats, smiling. “Estoy feliz cuando veo que Lance es feliz. Tú eres el motivo de la felicidad de Lance. Sé que lo amas, aunque no lo digas.”

All Keith can recognize is Lance’s name.

Then, Lance’s grandmother is suddenly lowering her hand and taking his left hand into her own. She covers the top of his hand with her other one, patting the top of it gently the same way she had at the airport.

Keith doesn’t know why, but tears well up in his eyes. She makes him feel safe in a way he’s never felt before.

“You know I really do love Lance, right?” Keith presses, even though he knows she can’t understand him. “I love your grandson. I love him.”

“Lo sé, Cariño“ She murmurs. “Lo sé.”

Keith has no idea what she’s saying but her words are so reassuring that Keith lets go of himself, allowing the tears to spill from his eyes. When she sees his tears, she laughs, but not in a way that is malicious or unkind.

“¿Por qué estás llorando?“ She says as she wipes his tears away. “Eres familia ahora.“

Keith smiles at her.

“You,” She says in broken English, patting his hand once more. “ _Family.”_

 

✈ 

 

When Keith and Lance’s grandmother return to the house together, Lance is nowhere to be seen. Instead, Luis, Rachel, and their mother greet the two of them at the front door, the former two with apologetic looks on their faces.

“Keith, we’re so sorry,” Rachel says, lowering her head in shame. “I didn’t mean to stress you out like that, I promise. I really do care about a lot about Lance but I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

“Same, dude,” Luis says, scratching the back of his head. “We shouldn’t have pressured you into anything. I hope this doesn’t give you a bad impression of our family. We’re good people, I promise!”

“I know,” Keith smiles gently. “I know.”

“We may not know much about you yet, Keith, but we want to get to know you more.” Lance’s mother says, coming up to stand next to hermother. “I don’t know anything at all about your past, but if you’ll have us, there is always a family for you here in Varadero.”

Tears well up in Keith’s eyes for the second time that day. “ _Thank you_. Thank you…” He struggles to search for the correct words.

“Call me mamá.” She smiles.

 

✈ 

 

Keith finds Lance sitting alone at an isolated spot on Varadero Beach.

“Hey.” Keith calls out quietly.

Lance turns around a little to look at him before offering a small smile. “Hey.”

Keith sits down next to him.

For a moment, it’s quiet.

“Lance,” Keith says. “You know that I–”

“I know,” Lance interrupts. “I know that you love me, you don’t have to say it.”

Keith looks at him in surprise.

“You show me you love me everyday in more ways than you can probably say it, anyway.” Lance says, laughing at the expression on Keith’s face. “So you don’t have to say it. Not until you’re ready.”

“You…” A rush of relief suddenly floods through Keith and he has to put his head between his knees to ease the dizziness. “You are the best  _damn_ thing that’s ever happened to me.”

Lance scoffs. “I already knew that. What, you’re just figuring that out now?”

Keith can’t help but crack a smile. “C’mere,” He says as he physically drags Lance over to sit between his legs. He wraps his arms around Lance’s waist and buries his face into the back of his neck. “あなたは太陽と星。 あなたは私の親友であります。” He murmurs.

There’s a pause.

“愛してる (I love you)。”

At Keith’s last four words, Lance’s heart skips a beat.

 _That_ small bit, he had understood.

But he doesn’t tell Keith, simply leaning back into his embrace, completely and utterly content.

**Author's Note:**

> Translations:
> 
> El amor de mi vida.  
> The love of my life.
> 
> Gracias, gracias por hacer que mi nieto sea tan feliz.  
> Thank you, thank you for making my grandson so happy.
> 
> Bienvenido a casa.  
> Welcome home.
> 
> Come más, Luis!  
> Eat more, Luis!
> 
> Ya estoy gordo, mamá!  
> I’m already fat, mom!
> 
> Veronica! Tienes novia?  
> Veronica! Do you have a girlfriend yet?
> 
> Callate por favor.  
> Shut up please.
> 
> Cariño, Estoy feliz cuando veo que Lance es feliz. Tú eres el motivo de la felicidad de Lance. Sé que lo amas, aunque no lo digas.  
> Sweetie, I am happy when I see that Lance is happy. You are the reason for Lance’s happiness. I know you love him, even if you do not say it.
> 
> Lo sé, Cariño. Lo sé.  
> I know, sweetie. I know.
> 
> ¿Por qué estás llorando?  
> Why are you crying?
> 
> Eres familia ahora.  
> You are family now.
> 
> あなたは太陽と星 。 あなたは私の親友であります。愛してる 。  
> You are the sun and stars. You are my best friend. I love you.
> 
> .  
> .  
> .
> 
> A big thank you to Avril for correcting my Spanish! 😊💓


End file.
